DA requests ICASA inquiry into SONA censorship

15 February 2015

The DA has today written to ICASA Chairperson, Dr Stephen Mncube, to request an urgent inquiry into what appears to have been an orchestrated strategy to prevent the public from seeing what transpired at the State of the Nation Address on Thursday night.

Besides the well-documented jamming of the cellular signal inside the National Assembly, it is reported inCity Press today that:

Parliament's TV feed cut away from the forced removal of the EFF and the DA's walk-out from the House;

SABC Head of News, Jimi Matthews, issued an instruction to staff not to show the EFF and the DA as they left the House;

SABC Chief Operations Officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, prevented independent commentators from being invited to give on-air analysis; and

Four of eNCA's satellite lines from Parliament were "jammed by an unknown rogue operator."

The jamming of the cellular signal on Thursday was an unprecedented contravention of media freedom. It meant that journalists inside the parliamentary press gallery couldn't file their stories, document proceedings live via social networks, or communicate with their colleagues outside the House. 

All indications are that the jamming of the signal was illegal. In November 2002, ICASA published a notice in Government Gazette 24123 that expressly prohibits the scrambling of cell phone signals. Section five of ICASA's 'Guide to Frequency Spectrum Use' states: "For security considerations and efficient electronic communications, the use of any jamming device including mobile phone jamming is prohibited in South Africa."

The question of who ordered the signal to be jammed is cloaked in secrecy. The Presidency has denied all knowledge of the incident, as has the Chair of Government's Security Cluster, Minister Noziviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Several sources, however, claim that the signal was restored on the instruction of Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa. 

Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, has announced that Parliament will be conducting an inquiry into the signal jamming. However, following her comments yesterday that the violent ejection of EFF MPs was "a beautiful opportunity to deal with those irritants", few people will hold out any hope of an impartial parliamentary investigation into the matter.

This is why we require an independent investigation to be undertaken by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. Indeed, ICASA is obliged to investigate the jamming of the signal in terms of section 30 (4) of the Electronic Communications Act, which states that ICASA "must investigate and resolve all instances of harmful interference to licensed services that are reported to it." It is therefore incumbent on ICASA to find out who jammed the signal, for what purpose and under whose orders. 

The DA has also requested ICASA to investigate the blackout of the DA and the EFF from Parliament's live feed and the SABC broadcast, the SABC's blacklisting of commentators and the jamming of the eNCA satellite feed. We believe these actions are in breach of the following laws and regulations:

Section 192 of the Constitution, which stipulates that broadcasting must be "in the public interest, and to ensure fairness and a diversity of views broadly representing South African society."

Section 3 (5)(d) of the Broadcasting Act, which states that the broadcasting system must "provide a reasonable, balanced opportunity for the public to receive a variety of points of view on matters of public concern."

Section 2(d) of the Broadcasting Act, which enjoins the SABC to "ensure plurality of news, views and information."

Section 8 (f) of the Broadcasting Act, which holds the SABC to a "high standard of accuracy, fairness and impartiality in news and programmes that deal with matters of public interest."

Section 4 of the ICASA Act obliges the regulator to "investigate and adjudicate complaints submitted to the Authority in terms of this Act, the underlying statutes, and licence conditions." ICASA therefore has little choice but to accede to this request, and investigate these transgressions of the Electronic Communications Act and Broadcasting Act.

An ICASA inquiry into the censorship of SONA would need to determine inter alia:

Who ordered the jamming of the cellular signal;

On what basis the jamming of the signal can be justified;

Whether SABC bosses issued instructions to blacklist commentators and blackout opposition parties;

Whether it is lawful to prevent outside broadcasters from filming inside the National Assembly, thus making the public reliant on Parliament's TV feed;

Whether a decision was taken by Parliament TV to ignore the removal of the EFF and the walk-out of the DA, and whether that decision was lawful; and

Whether the eNCA satellite feed was sabotaged, as claimed.

The events that transpired during the State of the Nation Address have shocked the nation to its core. We need to do everything we can to restore the public's faith in the institutions that check and balance the abuse of executive power. We therefore call on ICASA to carry out this investigation without delay, and without fear or favour.

Statement issued by Gavin Davis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Communications. February 15 2015

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